In a special meeting on June 10, the John Wood Community College Board of Trustees heard presentations from architects who submitted “qualifications” for the Workforce Development Center expansion project. The meeting was conducted virtually as permitted by the Gubernatorial Disaster Proclamation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Workforce Development Center (WDC) expansion project is based on a federal grant titled: “EDA Economic Adjustment Assistance Program Grant”. This is a $6.25MM project with an expected 80% federal grant and a 20% local funding match. Three local firms, Architechnics, Klingner and Associates/BLDD and Poepping, Stone, Bach & Associates, and one regional firm, Ittner Architects, Inc. made presentations to the Board.
The expansion at JWCC’s WDC site located at 4220 Kochs Lane in Quincy would include the following: a separate Truck Driving Training building, expansion of the north and south sides of the current building, a new physical building entrance on the east side, a new vehicle road entrance off 42nd Street and the purchase of additional Career and Technical Education program equipment.
“JWCC’s number one capital project that was developed from a year-long Campus Master Planning process was the expansion of our Workforce Development Center,” JWCC President Michael Elbe said. “We continue to make investments for workforce training in the areas of manufacturing, agriculture, transportation/logistics, health sciences and many other career technical programs. The College is expanding our career education programs, and these training programs all require physical space to conduct hands-on training. Leveraging these federal grant dollars is an excellent opportunity to provide expansion of programs and facilities for this region to support the workforce needs of the Tri-State area.”
The next meeting will be held Wednesday, June 17, 2020, at 7 p.m. at JWCC’s Quincy campus.
